Networking a small business together?

Question

Well to start off, I am in school for computer networking. My boss at a local computer shop wants me to network his office together. Here is what I need

-A network for the business computers that hold the accounting and inventory information.
-A separate network that the computers we are repairing, and the employees, and customers can use. This will include about 5 drops located over the office, plus Wi-Fi.

Here is my problem. Look at this picture of what the topology I am planning on building  http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/821/networkdiagram.jpg/

This is what Im wondering
- Can I plug a cable from the dsl modem to a hub, and then run 2 seperate networks from that hub?
- Or can I plug a cable from the modem, to a router, then plus one router into another to create 2 seperate networks?

Richard · Accepted Answer

Connect the WAN port of a cable router to the modem. This router will form the basis of your customer network. If you need more LAN ports than the router provides, then connect one router LAN port to a LAN switch.

Use a second cable router with its WAN port connected to one of the LAN ports on the first router. The second router will support the business network.

Make sure that the private network on the second router is different from the private network of the first one. For example, if the first router is using 192.168.1.0 as its private subnet, put the second one on 192.168.2.0.

The NAT function and firewall in the second router will prevent customers attached to the first router from connecting to computers on the second router. However, computers on the second router will be able to connect to the Internet and, if required, to computers on the first router.

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Networking a small business together?

1 Answer